Your process to fishing ugly flies can begin at the tying vise.  Instead of tying up bugs exactly how the recipe calls for, branch out and add some loosely tied dubbing.  Start using bushier materials like SLF Spikey dubbing, or Hungarian partridge to add movement to your flies.  You may also consider utilizing a dubbing brush to create a more pronounced and bushier look to your flies.  After a successful day of fishing I like to go through my fly box and examine the flies that caught fish.  I’ll take those flies and put them on the vise and simply retie them by adding thread or retie on the dubbing to make the fly fishable.  The more frayed the bug looks the better.  Use what nature has given you and mimic it to perfection.  Here are a few examples of fly patterns that I like improving on or keeping fishable after having much success with them on the water.

After a successful day catching fish with Lance Egan’s Frenchie I take time to see how the flies look and I go back to my fly box and make the dubbing on my unused frenchies a little bushier or frayed looking.  I look to see if the wire on the Frenchie has been bunched up or if the pheasant tail or the thread has been frayed. Recently Eagan posted a video on flyfishfood.com about the Thread Frenchie, that is a great pattern that is durable but when you’re tying the pattern really ease up on the UV resign of the body.  You want to have the thread slightly exposed so that the thread can have the chance to be frayed.  Once again you are trying to match nature’s perfect imperfections when fishing ugly flies.    

Craig Mattews’ Iris caddis with its dubbed body is a great fly that gets really frayed and bushy looking after catching a few fish.  The recipe even encourages tiers to give it a “scraggly” look and shy away from giving it a clean look.  I can’t tell you how many times during the summer and fall that I fish the pattern during the evening hatch and then keep that same fly on for the morning and have clients continue to catch fish with the slightly used and frayed Iris Caddis fly.

My ultimate ugly looking fly is a crane fly pattern.  It’s a variation to the Barr’s crane fly larvae (a fantastic pattern).  I begin by not using the scud back wrap over the back of the fly and instead use Solarez UV resin to create a slick back on the fly.

The slick back serves two purposes; one to create a faster sink rate and two to give it a sleek shimmering look.  I typically tie on a shiny DNA microflash back on the fly that gives it a translucent look.  I also began using a combination dubbing of SLC spikey dubbing with Trout Hunter’s CDC dubbing to create a much more scraggly effect when wrapping the dubbing loop around the shank of the hook.  The CDC dubbing really adds movement to the fly underwater and periodically the fibers capture air bubbles within the CDC fibers which also adds to the look and feel of the fly underwater.

So the next time you’re out on the water continue to match the hatch but also begin utilizing those ugly flies that nature has naturally sculpted for you by tying them on before and through the hatch.  You may surprise yourself how well nature’s perfect imperfections will increase your hook rates and make your trip.  Tight lines and keep em ugly!

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March and April are prime spawning months for the rainbow trout here in the Rocky Mountain region.  The rainbow trout swim upstream, finding the perfect spot for their spawning bed, called a redd.  The female rainbows spend a lot of time energetically fanning her tail to clear out the debris and silt from the redd.  This cleaning process is important so that the fertilized eggs will have water and oxygen to reach them.

The year 2020 started out like many previous years, cycles of snow, rain, interspersed with many days of sunshine.  However, daily life was upended with the introduction of Covid-19 and as a result the shelter in place mandate for the entire state.  This virus (Covid-19) has drastically changed our sense of life in Colorado; causing many people to be forced to work from home, schools have moved to online forums, spring sports to be canceled, and our daily lives have changed far beyond what we could have imagined just a few months ago.  These changes have also entered the fly-fishermen’s lives, as social distancing has caused many to stay home and try to ignore the call of the river in order to flatten the curve of the Covid-19 virus. 

These new changes (social distancing and shelter in place) are intimidating and frustrating to be sure.  But these changes can serve as a special enhancement for the Colorado rainbow trout spawning time.  With fewer fly-fishermen out on the water, more rainbow trout will be able to spawn with fewer distractions.  More rainbow trout will have fewer fisherman possibly disturbing their newly created redds, thereby creating the potential for hundreds of new rainbow trout for the next fishing season. 

Let us reframe this time period in Colorado, from a fly-fishing hinderance to a spawning fishes extraordinary excess spawning time.  Though many fly-fishermen are finding themselves with limited time on the water, the rainbow trout can find new, peaceful spawning time.  This time will lead to greater rewards for the fly-fishermen next year, when there are even more rainbow trout to be seen and caught, and many a heroic tale of the fierce battle to reel in a Colorado rainbow trout.

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